Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Whirlpool Corporation: Washing Machines

baroness hayter of kentish town: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) had with Whirlpool in advance of the company issuing a product recall of its Hotpoint and Indesit washing machines in December 2019; and whether Whirlpool issued the product recall at the request of the OPSS.

lord duncan of springbank: The Government is committed to protecting consumers from unsafe products. Legislation is in place to require that manufacturers only place safe products on the market and take action where they identify a safety issue with products already on the market. Whirlpool informed OPSS in October 2019 that it was investigating a potential issue with door locks on some models of washing machine. OPSS required the company to provide detailed data on this issue in order to have clarity on the nature and scale of the problem and to identify the appropriate response to protect public safety. Following assessment of the issue, it was agreed that a full recall should be instigated and the recall programme was announced on 17 December 2019. OPSS is now monitoring the recall closely and will hold the company to account if it does not an effective recall.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Iraq: Genocide

lord alton of liverpool: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk of genocide against minorities in Northern Iraq and Kurdistan; and whether NATO military personnel will continue to remain in areas administered by the Kurdish Regional Government.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: We do not currently assess there to be a significant risk of genocide in northern Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The UK is firmly committed to supporting the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to counter the ongoing threat from Daesh through the Global Coalition, and to providing security to and supporting the rights of all minority communities in Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The NATO Mission in Iraq does not have troops in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. We continue to support the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh (UNITAD) in Iraq.

Department for Exiting the European Union

British Nationals Abroad: EU Countries

lord mawson: To ask Her Majesty's Government what provisions have been made, if any, for UK citizens to stay for longer than 90 days in any 180 day period in the Schengen area after Brexit.

lord mawson: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had, if any, with the European Council about extending the period of time that UK citizens will be granted visa free travel in the Schengen area after Brexit.

lord mawson: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of UK citizens who will be affected by the 90 day in any 180 day limit on visa free travel in the Schengen area after Brexit; and, in particular, what assessment they have made of the impact on UK citizens who own property in the Schengen area.

lord callanan: The Government recognises the importance of mobility for economic, social and cultural cooperation. This includes the value of visa-free travel arrangements for UK nationals and EU citizens traveling to each other's territories for short-term visits. ONS figures show that in 2018, UK residents made c.54 million visits to the EU of which c.87% lasted for a period of 13 nights or fewer.The EU has already legislated such that UK nationals will not need a visa when travelling to the Schengen area for short stays of up to 90 days in every 180-day period. This will apply once free movement ends and after the end of the implementation period.The Political Declaration sets out the aspects of mobility that the UK and the EU have committed to discuss in the negotiations on the future relationship. This includes providing for visa-free travel for short-term visits. Any provisions agreed in the negotiations would benefit all UK nationals, including those who own property in the EU. The detail of future mobility arrangements with the EU will be subject to negotiation.

Department of Health and Social Care

Hospitals: Overcrowding

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to find a short-term solution to overcrowding in hospitals, following reports that hospitals are redeploying nurses from wards to look after patients in corridors.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: NHS England and NHS Improvement have monitoring in place 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is to ensure that where pressures are the most acute, actions in line with local escalation policies are instigated with the view to providing an immediate decant of an accident and emergency department to prevent care from having to be provided in corridors. Plans include provision of additional capacity and actions that are designed to de-escalate the situation at times of operational pressure.

Mental Health Services: Young People

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the ‘treatment gap’ for young people who are referred to mental health services but rejected for not meeting eligibility criteria.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: Under the NHS Long Term Plan, mental health services will continue to receive a growing share of the National Health Service budget, with funding to grow by at least £2.3 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24. Spending for children and young people’s mental health services will grow faster than the overall spend on mental health, which will itself be growing faster than the overall NHS budget.The new investment announced in the Long Term Plan will mean that by 2023/24, an extra 345,000 children and young people aged 0-25 will receive mental health support via NHS-funded mental health services and school or college-based mental health support teams.

Broadmoor Hospital

lord trefgarne: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, for the now-closed hospital at Broadmoor; and where the former patients are now held.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: Broadmoor Hospital is owned by West London NHS Trust. In December 2019, the Broadmoor Hospital moved from the predominantly Victorian buildings, which were no longer compatible with modern clinical standards, into a state-of-the-art facility. This provides purpose built accommodation to ensure a safe, therapeutic environment for the care, treatment and rehabilitation of patients who need high-secure psychiatric care. All the former patients have been moved this new facility on the same site.The Department encourages the National Health Service to sell land when it is not in use and the NHS locally deem it no longer needed for clinical purposes. Broadmoor Hospital was declared surplus in April 2012 and is recorded in the NHS Surplus Land annual collection. The surplus land area is 16.86 hectares containing listed buildings and is expected to be disposed of in April 2022.The Trust is looking to dispose the former hospital in a sensitive way that accounts for the complex planning and environmental aspects of the site, in line with official NHS guidance.

Mental Illness: Children

lord bradley: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children with mental illness presented to Accident and Emergency departments in each of the last five years.

lord bradley: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children with mental illness were admitted into hospital following attendance at Accident and Emergency departments in each of the last five years.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: The data is not held in the format requested.

Sunbeds

lord clark of windermere: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Blackwood of North Oxford on 25 April 2019 (HL15227), what progress they have made in considering whether current legislation and associated guidance are effective for protecting sunbed users.

lord clark of windermere: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Blackwood of North Oxford on 25 April 2019 (HL15227), what timetable they have set for reviewing sunbed legislation and associated guidance.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: The Department, with expert advisers, is continuing to consider whether the current legislation and associated guidance produced by the Department, Public Health England and the Health and Safety Executive to support the enforcement of the regulations by local authorities and the safe use of sunbeds, are effective for protecting sunbed users.Public Health England (PHE) is updating the guidance to sunbed users on the gov.uk website, with an expected publication date of spring 2020.PHE is also developing an information poster for sunbed users. This is expected to be ready for publication before summer 2020.

Prescriptions: Universal Credit

baroness lister of burtersett: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford on 18 February 2019 (HL13524), when they plan to publish the revised version of the F10 prescription form, featuring a tick box for Universal Credit claimants who meet the criteria for free NHS prescriptions.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: The new FP10 National Health Service prescription form, which includes a tick box for Universal Credit claimants who meet the criteria for free prescriptions, is now being printed. Once the contractor has built sufficient stock to meet orders from the NHS, the form will be distributed.

Mental Illness: Children

lord bradley: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children with mental illness who presented at an accident and emergency department were admitted into hospital within (1) three miles, (2) five miles, (3) 10 miles, (4) 20 miles, and (5) more than 20 miles, from their homes, in each of the last five years.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: The data is not held in the format requested.

Mental Health Act 1983

baroness penn: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to publish a White Paper on reform of the Mental Health Act 1983, following the announcement in June 2019 that such a White Paper would be published before the end of 2019.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: We will publish our White Paper in the next few months, which will set out the Government’s response to Sir Simon Wessely’s Independent Review of the Mental Health Act.Our intention is that this White Paper will pave the way for reform to the Mental Health Act 1983, and tackle issues addressed by the Review. We will ensure that people subject to the Act receive better care and have a much greater say in that care.We will consult publicly on our proposals and we will bring forward a Bill to amend the Act when parliamentary time allows.

Care Homes

lord warner: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) nursing homes, and (2) nursing home beds, were registered with the Care Quality Commission at the end of September in the financial years from 2015/16 to 2019/20.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: The following table shows the number of nursing homes registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) along with the number of nursing home beds, between 2015 and 2019. Active atNumber of nursing homesNumber of beds30 September 20154,515219,73330 September 20164,446218,97230 September 20174,436220,31730 September 20184,440222,21630 September 2019 14,379221,283Source: CQC database as at 16 January 2020. Notes: 1The data is as at 16 January 2020.All other data is as at 1 April 2019.‘Nursing homes’ are defined as locations with the service type of 'care home service with nursing'.

Care Homes: Finance

lord warner: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allocate funds over the next four financial years for the increase of "step down care" nursing home beds to relieve pressure on acute care hospitals and adult social care services.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: The Care Act 2014 placed a duty on councils to offer a meaningful choice of services, so that people have a range of high quality, appropriate care options to choose from and that they get the services that best meet their needs. Decisions on how to allocate funding to comply with this duty are for councils.We are also providing councils with an additional £1 billion of grant funding for adults and children’s social care, on top of maintaining £2.5 billion of existing social care grants next year. In addition, the Government has proposed a 2% precept that will enable councils to access a further £500 million for adult social care.

The Senior Deputy Speaker

Parliament: Correspondence

lord norton of louth: To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker how many items of correspondence were received in the Palace of Westminster in 2019; and of those, how many were received in the House of Lords.

lord laming: The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. In total, 1,254,748 items of mail were received on the Parliamentary Estate in 2019. The destination of mail is not recorded but it is estimated that approximately 15 per cent of these items were destined for the House of Lords. These figures do not include parcels, courier items or internal mail.Please note that this figure refers to the whole Parliamentary Estate, not just the Palace of Westminster.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Leasehold: Reform

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to reform the leasehold sector.

viscount younger of leckie: The Government is taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market.We are moving towards legislation to ban the sale of new leasehold houses, restrict ground rents to zero for future leases, give freehold home owners equivalent rights to challenge unfair charges, and close loopholes to prevent unfair evictions. We are also working with the Law Commission to make buying a freehold or extending a lease easier, quicker and more cost effective – and to reinvigorate Commonhold and Right to Manage. The Law Commission published its report on options for valuation on 9 January, and we are now considering next steps.In October 2018 we established an independent working group, chaired by Lord Best, to raise standards across the property sector, which also considered how fees such as service charges should be presented to consumers in the leasehold sector. The working group published its final report to Government on 18 July 2019. We are considering the report’s recommendations and will announce next steps in due course.In 2017, the Law Commission also published a report of their review of event fees in the leasehold retirement sector on behalf of this Department. The Government responded to the Law Commission in March 2019, agreeing to implement the majority of the recommendations. We are currently further considering two recommendations, on succession rights and a database of leasehold retirement properties with event fees.

Holiday Accommodation

baroness gardner of parkes: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the impact of the Deregulation Act 2015 on short-term lettings,and (2) the proposal by the Mayor of London in April 2019 for the introduction of a registration system for those renting property for less than 90 days in a calendar year in London; and what plans they have, if any, to introduce such a system.

viscount younger of leckie: The Deregulation Act 2015 limits short-term lettings in London to 90 days per property per calendar year. We have not made any specific assessment of its impact on short-term lettings. As to the proposal by the Mayor of London, the Government has no current plans to introduce such a register. However, we are aware of the work by the Short-Term Accommodation Association as well as platforms such as Airbnb, HomeAway and TripAdvisor to put in place their own procedures to avoid breach of the 90-day limit which we note with interest.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Beavers: Devon

lord greaves: To ask Her Majesty's Government how they intend to assess the results of the five-year River Otter Beaver Trial, led by the Devon Wildlife Trust.

lord goldsmith of richmond park: We continue to discuss the ongoing trial with the Devon Wildlife Trust and their partners, with Natural England (NE) and the Environment Agency represented on its Steering and Working Groups. Defra and NE will assess the trial using the reports and recommendations that will be submitted to us by the Trust upon the trial’s conclusion. We will then use these findings to inform decisions on the future of the trial and the beavers on the River Otter.

Tree Planting: Urban Areas

lord patten: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Gardiner of Kimble on 7 January (HL64), how many trees they intend to plant in towns and cities between 2020 and 2025.

lord goldsmith of richmond park: This Government recognises the vital role trees play in delivering social, environmental and economic benefits in and around our towns and cities. They help clean and cool the air, prevent flood risk, and support our physical and mental health. The Government is committed to increasing tree planting across the UK throughout this parliament to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025. We have not set a specific target for the number of urban trees which will be planted, but have announced a Nature for Climate Fund which will support planting in rural and urban areas. We are currently planting through the Urban Tree Challenge Fund, which supports planting of at least 20,000 large trees and 110,000 small trees in urban areas in England. We are also introducing a new duty on local authorities to consult local communities when considering felling street trees.

Home Office

Extinction Rebellion: Demonstrations

lord greaves: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the property seized before, and during, the Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in London in October 2019 has been returned to its owners; and if not, whatwill happen to that property.

baroness williams of trafford: The treatment of property seized or confiscated during the course of Extinction Rebellion’s October demonstrations in London is an operational matter for the Metropolitan Police Service.

Asylum: Appeals

lord hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of asylum cases were reversed on appeal in the last year for which figures are available.

baroness williams of trafford: The Home Office publishes data on asylum appeals determined in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-releaseData on the number of asylum appeals lodged and determined (allowed or dismissed) are published in tables Asy_D06 and Asy_D07 of the ‘asylum appeals lodged and determined datasets’.Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2019. Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the ‘summary tables’. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on asylum and resettlement.Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’https://www.gov.uk/search/research-and-statistics?keywords=immigration&content_store_document_type=upcoming_statistics&organisations%5B%5D=home-office&order=relevanceA summary of the data on appeals, taken from the summary tables, can be found in Annex A. 



Annex A - Summary Tables 
(Excel SpreadSheet, 13.07 KB)

Cabinet Office

House of Lords Composition

lord greaves: To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the all-party consensus, reached in 1999 when the House of Lords Act was passed, that no single political party would in future have a majority of the politically declared membership of the House of Lords.

earl howe: The House of Lords has a key role in scrutinising the executive and being a revising chamber. It is important that the way it is constituted reflects that role and the primacy of the House of Commons. The Conservative manifesto committed to looking at the role of the House of Lords and reviewing the relationship between the Government, Parliament and the courts.The House of Lords Appointments Commission recommends individuals for appointment as non-party-political life peers. In line with established convention, the number of nominations to be offered to individual political parties is a matter for the Prime Minister. All appointments are vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission to ensure the highest standards of propriety.